Here is a team ready to rule Europe. In brushing aside Inter, Paris Saint-Germain already knew they were the best in the business. In colours that have seemed tortured by a decade-plus of failure on the big stage, this brilliant group of players knew how this final would be ending from the outset.

Even PSG’s kick off, punting the ball out midway down the right flank, was an act of swaggering authority. Take the ball, they told Inter. We’ll have it back as soon as we feel like it.

For Inter, what had long been obvious to PSG took 20 minutes to dawn. At two goals down they knew the game was up. By the 90th they had had the greatest defeat in the history of European Cup finals inflicted on them. It would be easy to paint Federico Dimarco as the fall guy, but he shouldn’t be wracked by questions about what might have happened if he hadn’t played Achraf Hakimi onside or had stood square against Desire Doue’s cannon. What would have happened is the same thing that happened anyway. Playing at this level, PSG were always going to win.

Their team was simply too multi-faceted in its excellence for anyone short of Barcelona to match them in 2025. This has never quite felt like a post-superstar age for PSG and the highest wage bill in sport. Kylian Mbappe might be gone but Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Ousmane Dembele and Achraf Hakimi are and always were world class talents. This will rightly be framed as a triumph for a team first mindset over star power but it should not go unremarked that Luis Enrique has hardly wanted for talent.

PSG’s recruitment has always been excellent, as it should be given the money Qatar is prepared to invest in this soft power exercise. All that has changed since losing Mbappe, Neymar and Lionel Messi they haven’t been team building to plug gaps behind a diffident front three. They have afforded Luis Enrique all the raw ingredients he needs.

Not that this has been a managerial cakewalk. A year ago the suggestion that Ousmane Dembele would be some pressing tyro would have seen you laughed out of Paris. And yet, there he was with PSG two goals to the good early in the second half, harassing Yann Sommer in his six yard box. He led the pack and the hunt did not stop until Inter were historically beaten.

Luis Enrique has imbued this side with some of the scrappiness he blended into his great talent during his playing career; that ultra-technical triumvirate in the engine room really should have been getting pushed about by Premier League big beasts far more than it was.

What Luis Enrique has is a side that can do it all: controlling possession in midfield, flying across the field on counters where their forwards have no fixed abode and dominating duels with their outstanding back five. Best of all, they may be years off their collective peak. At an average age of 24 years, 262 days they gave up more than half a decade on their opponents, who had been finalists en masse two years ago. Marquinhos was the last man standing from the PSG side who lost the 2020 final. In what can only be described as anti-millennial discrimination, he is also the only player over 30 to feature for Les Parisiens this season. They have used four teenagers, not that you would know Doue doesn’t turn 20 for another three days.

It is hard to believe there can be much room to grow for a youngster who goes about everything with impudence. Some players peak early but PSG have enough bright young things that they can plan for a few to get even better. That is saying something when 22-year-old Nuno Mendes is the best lockdown left back in the game. At 20, Joao Neves has been one of the best tacklers in the Champions League, achieving the remarkable in winning the ball back at volume and with a greater than 50 percent success rate. At 24, Kvaratskhelia probably lies in the middle of PSG’s age distribution, but early years away from the spotlight make him a young 24 with only three years of top level European football. In that time, by the way, he has three league titles and a European Cup.

All this youth should have meant one thing. PSG should have frozen, all the more so given that Ligue 1 is such a flat track for them. The moment just did not got to them. Take the incident in the 36th minute when, lodged in the nearest Inter could approximate to a pressing trap, Nuno Mendes found the ball bouncing up awkwardly towards him. A swing of his left boot and a pass volleyed across field, freeing Achraf Hakimi to drive up the field.

Like the Real Madrid team that dominated the Champions League in the 2010s, there is something about the way that PSG play football that makes the other team freeze. Their road to Munich took them through Anfield, Villa Park and the Emirates Stadium, each of which were girding themselves up for one of their great European nights. On every occasion, PSG stamped on the balloon at the very outset.

They did it as effectively as ever on the biggest stage. Those 12 minutes that led to Hakimi’s opener were PSG probing, reaffirming that Dimarco was indeed the weak link. It was already dawning on Inter, Alessandro Bastoni rollicking his team mate after Dembele blew past him and shot at Sommer. Against Barcelona, Dimarco had managed to fade some of those defensive issues by getting up high and dragging Lamine Yamal back with him. This time out, Hakimi needed no helping hand. It was the same experience right across the pitch for the Italians. Individual battles became routs.

Unlike that Real Madrid side that should serve as their benchmark, PSG have had a pretty robust case for being the best team in Europe during the business end of the season. The quality has been there right across the field from the minute that Kvaratskhelia rocked up. It is only going to improve what with the infinite money glitch.

That is no guarantee of repeat triumphs. This might have been a very different final if Barcelona had made it. Arsenal and Liverpool pushed PSG close before Munich. Great teams rarely repeat in this competition, Luis Enrique knows that as well as anyone.

There is, however, nothing within PSG’s that is stopping them from here on out. This could be the first of many, the fourth French empire. They are now the team to beat.

photo by: Contributed

Kids play on an open field while parents watch from the sidelines at the A-Team Sports Facility, 4000 W 6th St.

While west Lawrence lost a space to shop for groceries when the Hy-Vee store near Sixth and Monterey Way closed in 2019, nearly five years later the big space has helped Lawrence enter the world of major, private sports facilities for youths and adults alike.

Or, put another way, you can’t get pickles there anymore, but you can play pickleball.

The facility at 4000 W. Sixth St. is home to a lot of things — sports simulators, batting cages, a pickleball court, a bar and cafe, and a gym — but more than anything it is a place where kids and adults can advance in their sport or overall physical fitness, said A-Team Sports owner Alan Rector.

“We’re trying to instill this in not only players but parents too, and make sure that they know that at this age, it’s not about wins and losses, it’s really about developing for the next level,” Rector said.

The business occupies the back and western end of the building, which is largely occupied by Velocity Church, which bought the building after the Hy-Vee closing.

Rector said the name A-Team actually comes from his and his wife’s names, Alan and Andrea, not the once popular action-adventure TV show featuring Mr. T and his mohawk. Rector was a youthful fan of the show, though, and he continues to be all in on fun for kids.

Rector’s vision for the facility began as a place where kids, like his own two daughters, could train on the same high-tech equipment at the same high-performance level that kids in neighboring cities do, as the Journal-World reported.

Since opening, that vision has grown to include kids in every walk of life with or without ambitions to play sports, he said.

“A lot of these kids don’t play sports, but they just get in here and they’re active twice a week, getting the blood flowing, and getting their strength up and just being more healthy,” Rector said.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Alan Rector prepares to load a softball into a pitching machine on May 29, 2025, at the A-Team Sports Facility, 4000 W. Sixth St.

The A-Team facility is home to 14 trainers in various sports, many trained as physical therapists who work with kids as young as six years old.

One of the facility’s programs, the acceleration program, is an eight-week course that helps determine at what level and intensity a kid should be training. Since the program is run by a trained physical therapist, it can also help identify other issues holding a kid back, Rector said.

“(The trainer) will check their joint mobility. And you know, if kids are pigeon-toed, for instance, it might not be for one reason or another, but it might just be that their ankles are really tight. So she’ll come up with different programs or different exercises for fixing those or helping correct their gaits,” Rector said.

The facility is full of activities for kids. To kick off summer this year, the facility hosted a party with bounce houses, food and games that hundreds of kids attended, Rector said. He said he hopes the facility can do what parents today often struggle to do — get their kids off their phones.

“I feel like for a lot of the younger-age kids, it’s hard for them to make phone calls and it’s hard for them to just interact and make eye contact, because of these smartphones,” Rector said.

photo by: Contributed

Kids play pickleball at the A-Team Sports Facility, 4000 W. Sixth St.

He said that goal is carried out not only in the activities the kids do at the facility, but also with the 19 baseball and softball teams that A-Team Sports trains for recreation leagues throughout the area under the separate nonprofit entity, A Team Aces Youth Sports Association.

To participate in the area leagues, the teams and the players usually have to pay a fee, especially as the number of tournaments grows. To avoid making parents pay out of pocket for those costs, the Aces hold regular fundraisers. Rector said a common fundraiser is a raffle which requires selling tickets. He said he encourages his players to get out there and sell tickets the old-fashioned way, face to face.

He said for some kids, the fundraisers aren’t enough and the Aces still has a scholarship program to help several kids out each year.

“We don’t want any kids sitting on the sideline because of money. We don’t want them sitting on the sideline regardless,” Rector said.

He said that it was never his intention to create so many teams, but after more than 300 kids showed up for tryouts, it seemed like the only option.

photo by: Contributed

Visitors practice in the batting cages at the A-Team Sports Facility, 4000 W. Sixth St.

“There’s definitely a need for it,” Rector said.

The facility is not just for kids, though. There are plenty of opportunities for adults to come and play too.

“We can rent this out for corporate events as well. We kind of close the curtains, make it more secluded, and people come in from three to five with their businesses, bring the employees and have a little bit of fun,” Rector said.

The facility has several options for golfers to practice their swing, including two state-of-the-art Full Swing simulators. A-Team also offers the option of having lessons with professional golfer and instructor Rob Nicholson.

The simulators also include a full suite of other games that can improve a person’s dexterity and skill. One game in particular is a fan favorite, Rector said: “Zombie Dodgeball.”

photo by: Contributed

A player prepares to throw a dodgeball in a “Zombie Dodgeball” simulator game at the A-Team Sports Facility, 4000 W. Sixth St.

“They’re in there breaking a sweat, throwing dodgeballs at the screen. It’s fun, but they’re active. It’s the best of both worlds. This gets them video games plus being active. Movement matters, so trying to keep them active and get them the mindset at a young age is important,” Rector said.

A-Team Sports promotes its programs, open-play days and special events on Facebook and Instagram. Its website, a-teamsports.com, has profiles of each of its trainers and lets visitors schedule a workout, birthday party or other event.

Rector said overall, he wants the community to know that there is a local place they can go where kids of all skill levels and interests can gather and share in the fun.

“Our main goal is to provide for our youth and our community, but grow and expand into a facility that we can have all sports. Basketball, volleyball, baseball and softball, soccer and everything else that we can provide,” Rector said.

photo by: Contributed

A golfer tees up before a swing on a golf simulator at the A-Team Sports Facility, 4000 W. Sixth St.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

The gym at the A-Team Sports Facility, 4000 W. Sixth St., is pictured on May 29, 2025.

Texarkana, Arkansas, recreation center renamed after longtime supporter of youth sports.

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California’s high school track-and-field state finals will award one extra medal Saturday in events where a transgender athlete places in the top three, a rule change that may be the first of its kind nationally by a high school sports governing body.

The new California Interscholastic Federation policy was written in response to the success of high school junior AB Hernandez, a trans student who competes in the girls high jump, long jump and triple jump. She led in all three events after preliminaries Friday. The CIF said earlier this week it would let an additional student compete and medal in the events where Hernandez qualified.

| MORE | US attorney in California launches Title IX investigation over transgender athlete who made high school championships

The two-day championship kicked off in the sweltering heat at high school near Fresno. The atmosphere was relatively quiet Friday despite critics — including parents, conservative activists and President Donald Trump — calling for Hernandez to be barred from girls competition leading up to the meet.

There was some pushback Friday. A group of fewer than 10 people gathered outside the stadium ahead of the meet to protest Hernandez’s participation. Some of them wore “Save Girls’ Sports” T-shirts. At one point as Hernandez was attempting a high jump, someone in the stands yelled an insult. An aircraft circled above the stadium for more than an hour during the events, carrying a banner that read, “No Boys in Girls’ Sports!”

The rest of the night ran smoothly for Hernandez, who finished the triple jump with a mark close to 41 feet (13 meters), nearly 10 inches (25 centimeters) ahead of her closest competitor, San Francisco Bay Area junior Kira Gant Hatcher.

Hernandez also led in the long jump with a mark close to 20 feet (6 meters) to advance to the final. She advanced in the high jump, clearing 5 feet, 5 inches (1.7 meters) with ease.

She did not address the press.

California at center of national debate

The CIF rule change reflects efforts to find a middle ground in the debate over trans girls’ participation in youth sports.

“The CIF values all of our student-athletes and we will continue to uphold our mission of providing students with the opportunity to belong, connect, and compete while complying with California law,” the group said in a statement after announcing its rule change.

A recent AP-NORC poll found that about 7 in 10 U.S. adults think transgender female athletes should not be allowed to participate in girls and women’s sports at the high school, college or professional level. That view was shared by about 9 in 10 Republicans and roughly half of Democrats.

The federation announced the rule change after Trump threatened this week to pull federal funding from California unless it bars trans female athletes from competing on girls teams. The CIF said it decided on the change before then.

The U.S. Department of Justice also said it would investigate the state federation and the district that includes Hernandez’s high school to determine whether they violated federal sex discrimination law by allowing trans girls to compete in girls sports.

Some California Republicans also weighed in, with several state lawmakers attending a news conference to criticize the federation for keeping Hernandez in the competition and a Republican gubernatorial candidate planning to attend Saturday’s finals.

California law allows trans students to compete on sex-segregated sports teams consistent with their gender identity.

The federation said the rule would open the field to more “biological female” athletes. One expert said the change may itself be discriminatory because it creates an extra spot for “biological female” athletes but not for other trans athletes.

The federation did not specify how they define “biological female” or how they would verify whether a competitor meets that definition.

Hernandez told the publication Capital & Main earlier this month that she couldn’t worry about critics.

“I’m still a child, you’re an adult, and for you to act like a child shows how you are as a person,” she said.

Another student breaks a record

California’s state championship stands out from that of other states because of the number of competitors athletes are up against to qualify. The state had the second-largest number of students participating in outdoor track and field in the nation during the 2023-2024 school year, behind Texas, according to a survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Olympians Marion Jones and Tara Davis-Woodhall previously set state championship records in the long jump in 1993 and 2017, respectively, both surpassing 22 feet (6.7 meters).

The boys 100-meter dash heats were also a highlight Friday. Junior Jaden Jefferson of De La Salle High School in Concord finished in 10.01 seconds, about .2 seconds faster than a meet record set in 2023. Jefferson’s time won’t count as a record unless he can replicate his results in the final.

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